Accessing open data using business intelligence tools

Abstract

A method for querying an Open Data Protocol (“opendata”) opendata provider includes receiving a relational database query, parsing the relational database query, creating an execution plan, transmitting an opendata query to the opendata provider, transforming a response into a relational format, and providing the transformed response in reply to the relational database query. The method further includes mapping content of an opendata entity data model to a relational model catalog, and processing a portion of the execution plan by an opendata driver implemented at the server. The method can further include the server retrieving document metadata from the opendata provider, building an internal model of the document metadata, and responding to a metadata request. A system for implementing the method and a non-transitory computer readable medium are also disclosed.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A computer-implemented method for querying an opendata provider in communication with a server via an electronic communication network, the method comprising:
 receiving at the server a relational database query from an application running on a client computer coupled to the electronic communication network; 
 parsing by a parsing engine the relational database query; 
 creating an execution plan based on the results of the parsing step; 
 transmitting an opendata query to the opendata provider, the opendata query including at least a portion of the execution plan; 
 retrieving, at the server, document metadata from the opendata provider; 
 building an internal model of the document metadata; 
 mapping content of at least one opendata entity data model located at the opendata provider and the document metadata to at least one relational model catalog; 
 transforming at the server a response from the opendata provider into a relational format; and 
 providing the transformed response to the client computer application. 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the parsing step further includes creating an abstract syntax tree based on objects of the relational database query. 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the execution plan contains opendata supported operations that correspond to operations included in the relational database query. 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 1 , further including the step of mapping content of at least one opendata entity data model located at the opendata provider to at least one relational model catalog. 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 1 , further including:
 processing at least one portion of the execution plan by an opendata driver implemented at the server; and 
 providing at least one result of the processing step to the client computer application. 
 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 5 , wherein the opendata driver processes portions of the execution plan containing unsupported operations. 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 5 , wherein the at least one result is in a relational format. 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 5 , wherein the processing step includes accessing content of at least one relational model catalog, wherein the content of the at least one relational model catalog has a correspondence with content of at least one opendata entity data model located in the opendata provider. 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 1 , further including
 responding to a client computer application metadata request based on the internal model. 
 
     
     
       10. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions which when executed by a processor cause the processor to perform the method of:
 receiving at a server a relational database query from an application running on a client computer coupled to an electronic communication network; 
 parsing by a parsing engine the relational database query; 
 creating an execution plan based on the results of the parsing step; 
 transmitting an opendata query to an opendata provider coupled to the electronic communication network, the opendata query including at least a portion of the execution plan; 
 retrieving, at the server, document metadata from the opendata provider; 
 building an internal model of the document metadata; 
 mapping content of at least one opendata entity data model located at the opendata provider and the document metadata to at least one relational model catalog; 
 transforming at the server a response from the opendata provider into a relational format; and 
 providing the transformed response to the client computer application. 
 
     
     
       11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 10 , further including executable instructions to cause a processor to perform the step of mapping content of at least one opendata entity data model located at the opendata provider to at least one relational model catalog. 
     
     
       12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 10 , further including executable instructions to cause a processor to perform the steps of:
 processing at least one portion of the execution plan by an opendata driver implemented at the server; and 
 providing at least one result of the processing step to the client computer application. 
 
     
     
       13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 12 , wherein the processing step includes executable instructions to cause a processor to perform the step of accessing content of at least one relational model catalog, wherein the content of the at least one relational model catalog has a correspondence with content of at least one opendata entity data model located in the opendata provider. 
     
     
       14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 10 , further including executable instructions to cause a processor to perform the step of
 responding to a client computer application metadata request based on the internal model. 
 
     
     
       15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 10 , wherein the parsing step includes executable instructions to cause a processor to perform the step of creating an abstract syntax tree based on objects of the relational database query. 
     
     
       16. A system comprising:
 a server connected to an electronic communication network, the server including a control processor,
 wherein a parsing engine, a mapping engine, and an opendata driver are coupled to the control processor; 
 
 the server being in communication with a data store over at least one of the electronic communication network and a dedicated communication path; 
 the server configured to retrieve document metadata from an opendata provider connected to the electronic communication network; 
 the mapping engine configured to build an internal model of the document metadata and map content of at least one opendata entity data model located at the opendata provider and the document metadata to at least one relational model catalog; and 
 wherein the system is configured to transform a relational database query received by the server into an execution plan having at least one of a supported opendata operation and an unsupported opendata operation, and the opendata driver is configured to process the unsupported opendata operation at the server. 
 
     
     
       17. The system of  claim 16 , further including the parsing engine configured to build the execution plan by transforming the relational database query into opendata operations. 
     
     
       18. The system of  claim 16 , further including the mapping engine configured to transform a response received from an opendata provider containing an entity data model into a relational model catalog.